Just starting

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Gilly

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Hello everyone. First I would like to thank everyone for a great site. this is my first time doing a post so please bear with me.
Ok here is my question. I am relativly new at playing my guitar and I want to start recording so I can hear what I need to get better with. I have a Ibanez acoustic guitar. I have serched through this site and have been completly confussed. I dont need anything that will give me professional sound or effects or anything. I was looking at a tape 4 track but when i searched it seems that this may not be the way to go. any advice would be greatly appreciated. Also my budget is extremmly tight(under 500) if possible. if this has already been done to death please tell me how i can find the old posts with the search function so I dont waste any of your time.
thank you
 
For what you are wanting to do, I think your best bet is a desktop tape recorder with a built in electret mic.

If this is for practise as you say, don't spend the money on something you won't use
 
Thanks Sennheiser.

I have tried just a regular tape recorder but it has come out somewhat garbled so it didnt help me as much as I hoped it would. Also the mic on the recorder seemed to pick up a lot of unwanted noise. I guess I should have said that I wanted to get a little better recording than i could get with a built in mic. Again thanks for any help.
 
For what you describe you want to do, use your computer as your recorder. You can get a program like n-tracks for less than $50 I believe and one of those computer mics into your sound card. If you only want to hear your playing and aren't worried about fidelity, this'll work like a champ. And if at some point you want better quality, a better mic, a decent mic preamp and a better soundcard can be added to your set up for not a lot of money (under $500-$600) that will give you a LOT of bang for your buck.
 
Track Rat
my only concern with going to a computer based type of system is that my computer is about the same vintage as moses. It is also a laptop so upgrades are basicly out of the question. If the N-tracks can run on old systems(win 95) then i definatly want to check into it. The other reason i was thinking cassette is because i travel alot so i would like to have it be portable. I am sorry that I forgot to put this in my original post.

Thanks again for your help.
 
It sounds like you are already learning that cheap equipment and methods usually give you shitty results. Getting a cheap casette multi track and a crappy mic wont sound much better than a boom box recording.

You might want to get a pickup for your guitar, a preamp and record that on a casette deck or something if you just want to hear yourself play. Once you get into using a mic and expecting any decent quality you open up the whole pandoras box of equipment options.

IMHO there are only 2 ways to do recordings. The super shitty way or the right way. The right way is much more expensive. If you go half ass then you will just be kicking yourself trying to make it a little better than your equipment will allow and being pissed off that you didnt spend that extra cash on the right components. Why be a snob about subtle levels of crappiness?

Decide what you really want and go from there.
 
The electret condensor mic in most table top units is omni. That's why the high room noise.

Also you are probably saturating the tape if it's coming out all distorted and garbled. Try either tuning down the guitar amp or moving it across the room, or both.

You could also pick up an inexpensive four-track on e-bay for peanuts. Many of the lower end models are well under $100 bucks and it will do better than a desk top model.

If you record only on two tracks, you can always pop it into your boom box or home stereo to listen to playback if you have no monitor system.

I can't think of too much else in the analog realm.
 
Gully,

I'm going to have to disagree with Roadkill when he says a casette multi-tracker can't produce better results than a boom box. It's not that you'll get professional recordings with a cassette multi-tracker, but I don't think Tex has tried "boom box" recording lately to recall how bad things are.

I built a small home studio when I was in high school (15 years ago!) around a Fostex X-15 casette multi-tracker and my friends and I had a great time making some recordings there. The Fostex X-12 is basically the same thing (but smaller) and it sells for ~$99. That's not a bad place to start if you're on a tight budget.

Once you have that, you really only need two things.

1. A mic
2. A monitoring system

For basic monitoring tasks you can just run some RCA cables to your stereo. However, with the uses you're describing (basic recording and learning) you can't beat a good pair of headphones.

For the mic, people around here will tell you that you'll want a condenser mic to do aucoustic guitar. While this would sound better, you'll need a preamp with phantom power and you'll blow your budget. Start with a nice dynamic mic. Also, don't forget a mic stand. You'll need to get that mic up near the mouth of your guitar.

Now, the good news is that a lot of stores (and web sites) have packages for your kind of user. For example, Mars Music's web site has a nice looking little starter package that includes a mic, headphones, a stand and a mic cable -- all for $99.

That means you could get the X-12 and the starter pack and be doing some basic multi-tracking for $198 + shipping. Not a bad way to start. After you've been doing that for a few months (and getting to be a better guitar player while you're at it) you'll start to learn what you really care about for your recordings and can look at moving up to higher-end equipment if you so desire.

Now, all that being said, this is the 21st century and going digital has lots of advantages (waiting for tapes to rewind sucks!). I keep seeing ads for things like the Zoom MRS-4 -- which seems to have a street price of around $250. Mate that up with the starter pack of goodies and you're still under your $500 max budget. However, I haven't personally played with one of these yet, so you should probably search around for some reviews if you're tempted to go that route.

Best of luck putting together your studio.
 
I totally agree with xalien

I totally agree with xalien. I think I know what you're looking for. The cassette recorder is cheaper than going digital. However, the digital would be a step up. I don't know if you want to go that much, since you have a budget of $500 and you just want it for practice, but it could definitely be done. I think you'd be happier. But, you'd have to buy a CD burner too, but ebays got em for cheap.
 
Thank you

Thank you all for the suggestions. I started looking at ebay and they have some good deals. thanks again
 
Maybe I was being a little harsh comparing 4track casettes to a boom box. Most high end stereo casette decks have better frequency response than a casette multitrack. If you dont need to overdub you can usually get better quality with a stereo deck.

But if you want portability then a portastudio is the way to go. Please get a mini disk recorder or anything but cassette, though. Sorry guys I just can't reccomend cassette multitracks. They were cool back in the 80's but there are just too many better options out there now.
 
geez guys it's only for learning the guitar and not even for making a cheap demo! I would go to Mijer and pick up one of the larger cassett recordeers for $15 and throw it in the middle of the room and if it comes out garbled then turn your volume down or put it further away. . . I even did a demo on one. threw it next to the amp the vocals were coming out of which was next to the drums with the guitar amp 10 feet away and the bass on the other side of the room . . . came out decient enough to get a decient (300+ person) show. But you do have to realize that the sound quality will suck compaired to a commercial CD but you will be able to determine rythem and intonation which is probablly all you're concerned with. you probably have a boom box. . . thats what I would use for practice. . .
 
Sennheiser said:
You could also pick up an inexpensive four-track on e-bay for peanuts. Many of the lower end models are well under $100 bucks and it will do better than a desk top model.
Click to expand...

This is actually what I've been spending my dead hours at work looking for... heheheh...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...6&r=0&t=0&showTutorial=0&ed=0&indexURL=0&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=892734852

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1365535670

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=892980388

etc etc etc...

I've found that the best ways to find multi track recorders on ebay are to search for the following:

multi track
multi tracker
multitrack
multitracker
four track
4 track
fourtrack
home recording

unfortunately on Ebay, searching for "multi track" will result in different findings than "multi tracker". Strange, but true.

Anyways, I don't know if it will help anyone, but that's just what I've found in the past two minutes. TONS of stuff on there... I've scored a mixer or two (old-school RadioSmack stuff), a mic pre, etc etc. Ebay owns. heh.
 
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